Nutrition and Anthroposophy

Question
Dear Evelyn,

I am 33 yaer old (yes!) mother of 2. I am on the path of finding my mission in life and even though I have a career behind, I have decided to make a switch.
I am preparing to become a Nutritional Therapist with special concern in cancer and other degenerative diseases (whether it is karma or not, it's an impulse above me)...

I have lots and lots of question, but the first one is linked with Anthroposohy. I was wondering if you could give me some advice on certain books or materials that I could read, in order to understand more deeply this topic.

My second question, if it's ok with you, is with regards to Raw food movement and especially cancer patients.
I know from my humile knowledge that Steiner said about raw foods that they take too much time to digest so the I will be concentrated with this process.
On the other hand, there are many testimonies of stage 4 cancer patients that have recovered (without chemo or medication) only by following a rew food diet. And they have continued this way of living. There are raw food advocates that follow this way of eating and living for more than 10 years. All of them state that they have cured all their diseases, that they are so clear-minded, lots of energy and vitality, etc.
I do not know very much about Anthroposophy, and I was wondering if you could tell me your opinion in those above?

Thank you so much for everything and sorry for my English, as it is not my native language.

Warm wishes,
Cristina

Answer
Dear Cristina,

It is always wonderful to hear when somebody feels they have stumbled upon their life-mission! I wish you all the best with your studies and shall soulfully encourage you all the way. I would be interested to discover what type of nutritional education course you will be attending. Is there an Anthroposophic one in Rumania? I am already excited to note, judging by yourself, that Anthroposophy is well known amongst (some) Rumanians. Interestingly, maybe, Steiner always believed the future for Anthroposophy would lie much more in the Eastern parts of Europe (and Russia) - not the Anglican (Western) side. There are cosmic-universal reasons for this, not political or specifically cultural (let alone relgious) reasons, mind.

Your first question is the hardest to answer - or at least succinctly! Understanding Anthroposophy is not an easy task: not only does it take a LOT of literature to encompass it all, but it really needs a lot of living it, experiencing it. In Anthroposophy a nutritional course, for example, goes very easily hand in hand with flow-form design, bio-dynamic gardening/ farming, star-knowledge (mix of myth and astronomy), biographic/energy work, parenting courses, even elementals (dwarfs, salamanders etc).

The best way, always, to find an entrance into the more academic side of Anthroposophy is from a specific and personal interest, which in your case is nutrition and health. However, these topics very quickly border on Karma, Christology, and Cosmogeny, even Education, and definitely Botany and Medicine, For the latter I will give you a web link, www.anthromed.org and the title of an inspiring book on health called, "The Science and Art of Healing" by Ralph Twentyman. You may need to turn to such works in the future when you have trouble prescribing the right diet. Diagnosing is an integral part of your job, even if you work in cooperation with a medical practitioner. You need to "feel" the subtle and SOMATIC ins and outs of the disorder fully. A healing nutritionalist has to intervene, and invade normal likes/dislikes. You have to help resculpt the person's soul. This must be done through the physical, so you have to know this matter thoroughly, in order to lead them to the spiritual. Basically, nutrionalists in Anthroposophy therefore do not deal with patients much before official diagnosis (and prescriptive diet) because they lack the medical training. This is a pity, and should change, I feel. They could take a new and significant role in preventative medicine on a very personal (consulting) level. Nowadays, most alternative nutritionalists fulfill less than an informative and supportive role. They could become life-coaches!

Once you start investigating Anthroposophy through nutrition, quickly, you will find yourself stepping into more obvious links, related to bio-dynamics and  therapies (Eurythymy, rhythmic massage, music, speech, drama etc, etc). My list below consists of books which are fairly easy to read for the layperson with a serious interest in health and food. They are full of practical guidelines, and develop the same ideas but in different styles, and this is the way forward to finding your own understandging.

These sources are all, what I would deem, typicaly Anthroposophic and steer closely to the Steiner-tradition. This is recommendable, from my experience, (not origianlly an Anthroposophist) since it helps you better discern the value of modern interpretors or variations. There are some curious philosophies going around which smack of Anthroposophy but are not based on solid foundations. Beware of these! A more interesting comparison can be found in  David N. Russel. On his website are some short essays. He wrote an excellent one on digestion: Concepts of Digestion and Metabolism on the website of We Strive http://www.westrive.org/article:  He has also written a useful book. Some of his links are not very Anthroposophic (and distracting!), but it may be interesting to see how he combines Chinese and Ayurvedic principles to come up with ideas which are tie in very well with Anthroposophic principles.

In answer to your second query: the Raw Food Diet. As a fad it stands in opposition to a balanced diet as perceived from an Anthroposophical point of view. It stems, of course, from a counter-reaction to processed (modern) or overly rich foods (the first trends were started in the early nineteenth century). The story is more complex (and metaphysical) as to why raw food diets are not always, or even seldom beneficial to individuals (in the cooler north-west especially). There is some truth to the philosophy, but Macrobiotics best coined it in the seventies. It is true that grains are best eaten fresh and even milling divests them of some of their original, natural, solar energy (life-force). It is this life force which is so vital (!) to our regeneration, growth and spiritual development ultimately. Where it stagnates, we create sclerotic conditions, which in turn favour Cancer (or harbour carcinogenic influences).

In matters of digestion temperature, warmth, is a main facet. Be it soul warmth in processing thoughts, or metabolic activity in processing food. This warming process begins in the cultivation of crops. Bio-dynamic preparations, and farming techniques (which work with lunar and planetary calenders) introduce the right life-properties that makes the product (plant/animal) WHOLE(some) and (a)LIVEly, i.e. truly nutritious. The rest is dead matter and either causes natural waste, or the extremes of cold spots or putrefaction. Transformation of foreign matter, food, into human building blocks is a metabolic process which involves all our main vital organs in more direct or indirect manners - each time we eat. We eat to grow more soulful, and more aware of the fact we are spirit beings dwelling in earthbound conditions. We need to anchor to earth through matter from this planet, infused with all the four main elements (or five in Chineses principles, and five different ones in Ayurveda) - but use the (four) etheric forces carried by these elements. To extract this force we need to prepare our food in ways best suited to the product. Leafy veg clearly is so close to the sun, it needs little added to make it warm and ready for transsubstantiation. Salads can be enjoyed raw. Fruit is generally best raw (solar bombs!), but fruit which stores well, like apples and pears, may need extra "maturation" in stewing, especially for the infirm. Quinces and medlars are obviously not ripe at all. Cranberries are red hot but like meat need tenderising (can't be eaten raw). Instead of relaxing in the heat, they crammed it into astringent shots to pellet into the winter. Fruit allergies seem relatively on the rise and are fairly modern, but they indicate how foreign fruit can be to our system, and far from "natural" to the system. Grains are full of golden sunlight, but they are also heavy for it, packed with new life, protein rich and complex messengers in that sense. So they are warming, but sometimes too much of a good thing: so for those who are not so young or fit and can enjoy mueslis, we mill them into bread and crackers, pasta and grits, etc.

To adamantly resist warming or cooking any food at all (in the Cro-Magnon diet even eat raw meat) makes no spiritual sense and rests on brain-work, not a soulful need.  By the same token INCLUDING plenty of raw foods in a cancer diet is curative because it stimulates the etheric forces and activates the Ego (Self) to incarnate into a living, creative, earthbound existence. The Higher Self (spirit being) is enabled to guide this "member" into this earthy vehicle.

There are not many lectures on nutrition by Steiner, but there are some which actually address this very point. You can find them on http://www.rsarchive.org/Medicine/ . These are not always easy to read, but indispensible to a genuine understanding of Steiner's time and place. Once you make allowances for "old fashioned" times, you will find most of what he says still holds true today. To understand and apply such cosmic knowledge is not easy, and many practitioners struggle. Thorough study, next to daily practice, therefore, is still the only way to properly understand what makes Anthroposophical (and Chinese and Ayurvedic philosophy) different to modern (less intangible) notions. A useful compilation of basic guidelines by Steiner himself, are compiled by Rita Leroi in a work possibly of special interest to you on Cancer. It took me years to understand the difference between organic and biodynamic plants and animals. Now the difference is unmistakeable. You become attuned through experience - and much commitment!

Some foods can only work when given that extra development through warming processes (cooking, baking, warming). Man-made effort can release head-pole sustaining properties in root veg and meat stocks, for example. Bread is a great alchemical invention which is a real carrier of Mystery.  More challenging by far, than the (fairly molecular/scientific or overly idealistic) raw food diet, are the experiments suggested by Steiner for leavened (!) bread which cuts out yeast and sourdough ferment. It relies exclusively on the life-force properties in really fresh honey and flour, and certain propitious hours for kneading and baking (astral and cosmic influences). Hauschka (see below) goes into the successful experiments made. Also interesting is the aim of Anthroposophy to return to uncultivated  species for veg and grain. There are projects trying to gather and grow noble seeds suitable for large-scale farming and less arable conditions. These types of plants can do their own environmental communicating and inventive survival and will be less prone to disaster.  Science already has alerted us to the fact that we need a new type of wheat fast, because of growing pests and threats of famine in the future. Steiner suggested a species ahead of his time. More research is required in such fields of detailed expertise, motivated by a holistic impulse, not a small scale fad.

The boring truth is that what makes a great nutritionalist is someone who helps nourish the soul, in three square meals a day, day by day, understanding the changing needs of the child, adult, elderly, and infirm. The simplest place to start reeducating people about this is in the family home. Anthroposophical nutrition can contribute in this by being far from glamorous and sometimes not so easy to really, really understand. Trust you me, if you don't understand something about it, read it seven times more!! From a professional point it may be interesting to read about Michael Werner, who does not eat at all! You get to ask yourself entirely new questions about the role of food. The title of his compelling (and very sober and Anthroposophic) book is  Life from Light: Is It Possible to Live Without Food?: A Scientist Reports on His Experiences (Others have achieved the same, but take a more typically guru-Indian view which impresses me less).


My best tip for you with regards to the Anthroposophical teachings, apart from remaining critical and inquisitive, is that you make sure you select from decent sources which are very close to the original ideas as presented by Steiner and those he endorsed. Only then is it safe to steer your own course, be it away, alongside, or straight through this vein. Don't be too quick to mix and match. It makes for a mess. Anthroposophy deserves a separate study: hence their own courses. The quality of which I cannot always, alas, guarantee....Even in Anthroposophy there is more inclination to label with status than to know with your heart.


Feel free to run by any further Anthroposophically-specific questions, any time in the future.
Stay healthy, study hard! Above all, remain the great, caring mum I know you must be to care so much about nutrition and healing.
Love Evelyn

INITIAL RECOMMENDED READING

Gerhard Schmidt:
-  The Dynamics of Nutrition: The Impulse of Rudolf Steiner抯 Spiritual Science for a New Nutritional Hygiene
- The Essentials of Nutrition,

Udo Renzenbrink:
- Diet and Cancer
- Ern鋒rung unserer Kinder.
- Di鋞 bei Allergie
- Die sieben Getreide: Nahrung fur den Menschen
- Ern鋒rung bei Diabetes

G. F.; Hoogewerff
- Fundamentals of Nutrition in the Light of Spiritual Science

Rudolf Hauschka,
- Nutrition: A Holistic Approach

Rita Leroi
- An Anthroposophical Approach to Cancer
- Illness and Healing in the Context of Cosmic Evolution

Maria Geuter
- Herbs in Nutrition

Wilhelm Pelikan
- Healing Plants, Insights Through Spiritual Science (Volume I)

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